Liam Payne‘s untimely death and the harrowing circumstances surrounding it have once again brought attention to how vulnerable young people can be when fame hits them as overwhelmingly as it did for the members of One Direction.
Many people have drawn unsettling parallels between Liam’s story and that of Justin Bieber during the early years of his career, when addiction took over his life and nearly brought him to the brink of death on more than one occasion.
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Although their stories may seem different at first glance, the reality is that both Justin Bieber and Liam faced unimaginable pressures as teenagers, unable to live a normal life.
This, coupled with constant media access, relentless criticism on social media, excessive wealth, and a profound sense of isolation, led both Justin and Liam down a dark path, severely impacting their mental health.
While Bieber ultimately found a way back and has slowly regained control of his life, fate wasn’t as kind to Payne. Today, the music industry and fans around the world mourn the loss of another talented artist, claimed by addiction.
Justin Bieber’s Battle with Drugs
In the wake of Liam’s death, a clip from Justin Bieber’s 2020 documentary has gone viral. In the film, the Canadian singer opens up about his struggles with drug addiction for the first time, recounting how terrible that period was for him and those around him.
Bieber revealed that his first encounter with marijuana happened at just 13 years old, and from that point, his addiction only escalated. It reached a critical level where he was consuming a wide variety of drugs, often mixed with alcohol, in an attempt to escape from his reality.
Justin:”There was a time when I was sipping lean. I was popping pills, I was doing molly, you know, shrooms, everything. It was just an escape for me.”-Transcription from Justin Bieber: “Seasons” EP5. pic.twitter.com/Tct3Uy39m2
— Justin Bieber Crew (@JBCrewdotcom) February 3, 2020
Things became so dire that his security team would check on him at night to ensure he still had a pulse.
“People don’t know how serious it got, I was waking up in the morning and the first thing I was doing is popping pills and smoking a blunt and starting my day,” he said in the episode The Dark Season.
Thankfully, Bieber managed to overcome his addiction with the support of his family, friends, and, as he himself stated, his wife, Hailey Bieber, who became a powerful motivation for him to leave drugs behind.
This article was originally written in Spanish by Mariana Martell in Cultura Colectiva.
